Almost an hour later, Karina and Winter were standing outside of their lively training room with a fresh and clean Hajoon in Karina's arms. The pair could hear the loud shrieks of Giselle and Ningning along with animated chit-chat, no doubt coming from the ITZY girls. 

They had arrived minutes before but were now frozen in front of the door on account of Karina's hesitation. 

"Jimin, just go in already. What are you waiting for?" Winter asked impatiently. She turned to see Karina's eyebrows raised and her lips pursed. 

"Nothing. You go." 

"Me? You're the leader. Go." With no response from the older girl, Winter took this chance to complain. "Listen, if it's about the whole milk situation, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to spill milk on you but you were already spilling milk on yoursel-"

"It's not about that." Karina quickly shut the other girl down. 

"Then what?"

"Nothing! It's about nothing." Karina's voice quickly became shrill, indicating that she was lying. 

"Oh, my God. Don't tell me it is because ITZY is in there. Can you set aside your grudge against them for one second?" Karina rolled her eyes and looked away. 

Karina knew that she was being childish, but she couldn't help it. 

Before Karina could reply, the door opened, revealing a smiling tall girl on the other side with open arms. 

"Hey! I was wondering when you two would show up." Yeji greeted them happily. Winter gasped and immediately lept into the ITZY leader's arms. Returning the hug, the girl did not fail to notice the glare she was receiving from a certain blonde girl. 

"Late to your own evaluation, I see?" Yeji teased, enjoying the way Karina's expression immediately turned sour upon seeing her. With an affectionate gaze, she looked down upon the girl in her arms, failing to resist the urge to pat her head. Karina rolled her eyes at the sight in front of her.

Bowing quickly to the other leader, Karina shoved past the two and entered the room with a grunt, making sure to lightly bump shoulders with the other leader in the process.

"Ah, there is Miss Grumpy. Oh, and my baby!" The manager greeted them as she stood up from her chair, speed-walked to the door, and immediately took Hajoon into her arms. Karina sighed at the nickname. 

After she completed the Hajoon handoff, she turned to the members of ITZY who were looking curiously at her, no doubt confused by her attitude and facial expression. She greeted them quickly and as politely as she could muster while beckoning Ningning and Giselle over. 

The layout of their practice room had changed drastically. Numerous camera setups with light fixtures were sprawled across the room. A set of chairs for the audience were situated in the middle of the back wall. Seated were numerous staff members, company executives, and the rest of the ITZY members. 

At Karina's entrance, the chatter in the room instantly quieted as people began to ready themselves about the room for the performance. 

In an almost huddle-like formation, Karina began giving a pep talk to the girls, who seemed to forget the reason why they were there in the first place. Karina could hardly keep her composure when she noticed that during her little speech, the two girls in front of her would periodically peer over to where the ITZY girls were seated. Her anger continued to build up when out of the corner of her eye, she saw all of ITZY greet Winter loudly when she approached them.

"Minjeong!" Karina's voice rang harshly throughout the practice room. With no music playing or sounds heard in the room besides Karina's pep talk and ITZY's conversations, the room stopped at the change in atmosphere. Karina yelped when she felt a sharp pain in her foot. 

"Ow, what the hell?" The leader whisper-shouted at Ningning. Ningning shrugged.

"Be nice!" She whisper-shouted back. 

Realizing that she was, in fact, going to cause a scene with her outburst, Karina cleared and took a deep breath. She remembered that she has a role to fulfill when it came to their appearance and as the leader, she needed to take more responsibility. 

"Could you come here, please?" Karina attempted to lighten up her voice. "Are you performing with us or with them?" She teased in a light-hearted tone, signaling to everyone in the room that she was not actually in a bad mood. Thankfully, quiet laughs were heard around the room as Winter shook her head with a smile on her face and padded over to the group's huddle. 

In the corner of her sharp eye, Karina didn't miss how the ITZY girls were whispering to each other while looking at her. 

What could they be talking about? My attitude? Our performance? Are they plotting against us? Are they trying to take Minjeong away from-

Karina's internal dialogue was stopped when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. 

"Jimin, don't pay attention to them. Today is about us and our performance, right?" Winter's soothing voice was able to break through to her. Seeing this, Ningning and Giselle couldn't help but giggle.

They had been trying to get Karina's attention, too, after the leader had spaced out. But it seems only Winter is worthy of her focus. 

———

Their evaluation went exceptionally well. After Winter was able to calm Karina down, the leader forgot about everyone else in the room and performed without a hitch. The girls were nervous at first but gradually warmed up to the audience and displayed a fierce confidence by the time the evaluation was over. 

After the last note of their last performance rang out, they were immediately greeted by fervent applause and praise. Karina felt a pang of something in her heart after she saw how genuinely happy and proud the ITZY girls looked at the moment. 

Taking center stage, Karina quickly addressed t